Tracing fine lines, I can observe with curiosity and silent respect, the force that comes from them as small parts of
a growing form. They reunite themselves in a flexible structure with unexpected strength.
Standing back and looking at the drawings with some distance, these fragile lines seem to lose their individual character and almost become invisible, joined in their movement around the center and in their opening into the space. But looking closer, they recover their clear and sharp presence, one by one. It is not necessary to notice any outline or shape, to force them to have an individual character: they stand on their own, going slightly different directions, creating vibrating interferences in their crossing.
There was a time in the history of art, when "the individual gesture" was valued in a drawing, when a "unique style" and "originality", were taken to the extreme, becoming a kind of conceptual circus for an exclusive group of intellectuals, There was a time, when art was used to reveal the hidden meanings of signs, to make them appear transcendental through complicated discourses. Maybe, features like universality and timelessness were not considered quite as important back then. There was the urgency to "express" oneself as loud as possible, against the institutions of a conservative society – using violence against violence.
Understanding, endurance, and sustainability seem to be the new values. They are reflected in different ways in contemporary works of art, as an active part of society.
Indeed, the classic figure of the lonely hero sacrificing himself for some "high ideal" now has an echo of fascism or fanaticism, of a particularist and excluding way of thinking.
The hard-fought freedom of art that was wrested from religious and political obligations is nowadays under threat of being kidnapped again by moral causes and economic interests. There is no question that art plays a role in bringing social change. And yet it's a misunderstanding to turn it into an instrument, and force the viewer to limit his perception to established ideas of how-to-look and what-to-see.
Are explanations, not basically limitations? The moment of contemplation should be respected with silence, as an intimate moment of encounter and joy.
Maribel Mas
Translated by David Burnett
The previous ink drawings on japanese paper will be presented in the catalogue Interferences published by MMKoehn, Leipzig-Berln, 2017.
The drawings from the Interferences series will be part of a solo exhibition in the gallery Thaler Originalgrafik in the Spinnerei, the Leipzig Book Fair 2017 and the gallery A Cuadros in Madrid.
http://www.maribelmas.com/
The drawings from the Interferences series will be part of a solo exhibition in the gallery Thaler Originalgrafik in the Spinnerei, the Leipzig Book Fair 2017 and the gallery A Cuadros in Madrid.
http://www.maribelmas.com/
